Opponents: New sex offender laws won’t help

Laurie Jo Reynolds of Chicago was recently named a Soros Justice Fellow by the Open Society Institute for her work identifying unintended consequences of sex offender legislation.

PHOTOâBYâDUSTYâRHODES

Two state bills beefing up Illinois’ sex offender laws await only the governor’s signature to become law. But some groups say the legislation would waste money and fail to prevent future sex crimes.

Senate Bill 3084, known as the retroactive sex offender registration bill, would require lifetime registration for certain sex crimes committed more than 15 years ago. Under the new law, certain sex crimes committed at any time in the past would require registration, which could create as many as 10,000 new sex offenders, according to Laurie Jo Reynolds, a Chicago-based corrections reform advocate. Reynolds organized Tamms Year Ten, a coalition of groups advocating reform at the Tamms supermax prison in southern Illinois, and was recently named a Soros Justice Fellow by the Open Society Institute for her work on the unintended consequences of sex offender legislation.

Reynolds says the proposed law would put an enormous financial burden on the Illinois State Police, who monitor sex offender registration, requiring them to analyze old records to see who is required to register and then track down previous offenders. Meanwhile, Reynolds says the law would likely not prevent future crimes.

“It would take a tremendous commitment of state police resources to enact this law, and many of the people targeted are low-risk and have been law-abiding for decades,” she explains. “If someone had committed a new sex offense in the last 15 years, they would already be on the registry. We need a smarter registry, not a bigger one.”

Becky Palmer, senior vice president of clinical programs at Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers in Mundelein says the law would force newly-registered child sex offenders to move because Illinois bans child sex offenders from living within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds or certain other areas.

“Because of the housing restrictions many incarcerated sex offenders cannot find adequate or law-compliant housing, therefore, many are serving their parole behind bars and are being released into the community unsupervised and not receiving the necessary mental health services,” Palmer says, adding that between 93 and 97 percent of sex crimes are incest or are committed by someone the victim knows.

“Housing restrictions clearly would not have prevented these sexual assaults or increased public safety,” she says.

Senate Bill 2824 would ban registered sex offenders from forest preserves, conservation areas and public parks. Craig A., a registered sex offender who asked that his full name not be used to protect his employment, says he was forced to register as a sex offender after downloading inappropriate photographs of underage girls. Craig, who is a musician and sports enthusiast, says he could no longer perform concerts at public grandstands or play tennis at public parks if the bill passes, and it would instead remove the support network that keeps many offenders from reoffending.

“Therapy ordered by probation teaches us to get involved in things like park district leagues to create a support group of friends and give us more positive things in our lives,” he says. “This law will separate registered sex offenders from their supportive friends and place them into more isolation.”

Laurie Jo Reynolds says current laws and the proposed changes waste state resources on tracking low-risk offenders, such as high school kids caught having consensual sex with an underage partner.

“If we want true harm reduction, we should support risk-assessment, treatment, supervised release and other evidence-based practices which are smart on crime,” Reynolds says. “You just can’t expect reasoned sex offender policies from legislators in an election year.”

Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn, says the legislation will be reviewed when it is received by his office.

Comments

Old Comments

Finally, a story that exposes the uselessness and stupidity of all the new sex offender laws! It is as if the legislature has been on a witch hunt! Dunk the witches in a well, and if they drown, they are innocent! Same thing with these sex offenders, make them register for decades, ban them from every human possible contact, and if they survive, they must be cured.

Good for you Ms. Reynolds. Let's start to focus on real crimes and real criminals -- including molesters and rapists. But let's stop locking up for decades and registering Romeos and Juliets (aged 14), or the guys who stupidly download underage porn. And lets treat and track the small percentage of people who are really sick and need help.

Few people know how bad these laws are. I'm sure it makes some feel that children are safer even though it is not true. There is nothing that demonstrates this at all. But it does make a lot of people who are making money off these laws happier. And unscrupulous politicians, who never would have gotten their butts elected if not for these laws, are happier about them. And media that is drama-driven, rather than real news driven, loves them. So, they'll probably be around for awhile.

But, MOST who are on the registry are NOT Dangeorus, are NOT pedophiles. Their lives sure are being ruined...job loss, family loss, having to move, become homeless, having to look over their shoulders for some nut case vigilantes who don't care that they're the big majority who are Romeo-Juliets (19 yr. old boyfriend and 15 yr. old girlfriend), peed in public while intoxicated, mooned somebody for fun after a game, visited an adolescent prostitute who lied aobut her age....he may be a pathetic scumbag, but dangerous??? hardly. Or he could be one of the burgeoning numbers who downloaded "child" porn, MOST of which is adolescent girls/guys and do most men check to ask the age there???? But, is this stuff being used to trap men that would never harm a fly? ABSOLUTELY !! It is getting unreal. What is happening to our justice system.

OH, and who else does this blown up registry help??? THINK GARRIDO ! 18 YEARS AND HE WAS IN COMPLIANCE, PEOPLE. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? But, hey, keep 'em comin'...the more the merrier...then, if it hits you a little close to home, youlll get it.

As a retired Police officer and one who worked with these sex offender laws and also having worked with sex offenders, I have some real issues with the way the laws are writen. Most of the sex offender laws do NOTHING to protect the public. Those in office that we elect them to have added so many names to the sex offender registry (SOR) that it is now not worth the time to anyone. It is causing Law Enforcement many man hours. It is so overburden with names it does the public NO good at all. Those in office need to stop adding names to the SOR and figure out that anyone who has not committed a sex crime with 10 to 15 years is of no risk anymore to anyone. Those in office should recall what the SOR was for in the first place: a list of those who committed sex crimes against childern. Go back to what the list was for. STOP adding names to the SOR!

HOW LEGISLATORS AND MEDIA DESTROYED THE ILLINOIS SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY
I am on the sex offender registry for having a consensual relationship with my now wife, in 1998.We now have two beautiful children.There is an answer to the question ",why cant the police watch these guys and prevent future horrors."?
The answer is not what people want to hear as this subject is driven by hysteria and knee jerk legislation to appease a roman colliseum, mob type mentality.
There are thousands and thousands of consensual,statutory cases on the sex offender registry in each state,Plus juvenille cases(19 year olds with 15 year olds) ,public nudity,exposure,prostitution,indecent behavior,public peeing etc.
There simply are not enough police to monitor all these cases. Because the states wont interject risk assessment hearings, all sex offender registrants are lumped together and there simply isnt enough police power to monitor all registrants,nor should they.!!!!!!!!
I have been on television numerous times on this subject. I know what i did is socially taboo and illegal, yet i am not a threat to children or women.To put me next to a child rapist on this list, is like putting a casual marijuanna smoker ,caught with a bag, in the same arena s a meth lab gangster!!!!!!!.
List of police time waisted on my case:
:ive been on this list for 11 plus years,ive had 100 plus probation appointments,40 plus home checks,done over 17 police station check ins,police monitoring our home frequently,pulled over (with my wife,both of us in cuffs)11 plus times etc.Stickers on our home on Halloween,lost 6 jobs,various acts of vigilantism etc.
We have had DCFS called on us 3 times by an anonynous neighbor because im on the list and have had numerous threatening calls to our home. Addittionally we have had to call the Crestwood Police and bother them numerous times because of suspicious cars in front of our home, snapping pictures,gawking etc.All this police time for one consensual case ,AND WE ARE MARRIED .!!!!
( We were married by the same judge who gave me the original misdimeanor,who did not consider me a threat!!! He later helped seal our case to "protect this family and the children" )
If the public is wondering why law enforcement cant even stop violent registered offenders from re-offending,the answer is that these predators are like a pin hiding in a haystack.The haystack is thousands of non violent cases like mine, that would be removed immediately if risk assessment was employed.
No media figure has the courage to tell it straight: time to weed out the predators from the registrants who simply broke the law. Then the police can triple their time up on monitoring violent offenders.( Its not the police who make these laws its the congressional and Governor wannabes,who want to appear to look "tough on crime.",yet have no clue of the ramifications of their legilation on families nor care.)
Its always the same pattern, the media likes to cry wolf,get the public excited (for sensationalism)and then the lawmakers legislate an already blotted system ,while the real predators know this and use it in their hunting techniques as camoflague.
my name is Mark Perk, l Google in" Lets seperate the Misguided from the monsters" Eric Zorn ,Chicago tribune. This is our story.
our daughter is 4 years old,ironically I am as scared as anyone of true sexual predators. The story of any young child raped is heart breaking ,frightening yet tragically will happen time and time again. No one has the courage to seperate the wheat from the chaff.or the "misguided from the monsters". Mark and Krissy Perk
Posted by: kris perk at June 9, 2010 4:37 AM
There is only one way to handle it: size down the sex offender registry to only individuals who have gone through risk assesment to see if they are deemed dangerous, by a panel of psychologists/socioligists etc. Then if the judge agrees,put them on the list. Everyone else should perhaps be in a profile somewhere, yet not on a public access site. The registry is blotted,defeated its own purpose and is merley a scarlett letter to hang on people. It makes posturing politicans look good, gives the media fodder for sensationalized sex scandal stories yet tradgically provides cover and camoflague for real predators ,who hide in the registry amongst an ocean of statutory,sexting,consensual and other non sense,non violent cases.
No one cares,no one has the courage to make a public statement,and the killing will continue as the real predators have the same police monitoring as a teenage statutory case,. I should know,as you all know my husband is on the registry for dating me when i was underage.Fine,yet I am 27 years old now,the police still come over to check up on Mark and we have 2 children together, Then they go down the street and check up on a predator who had sex with an infant. Pretty ridiculous,even the cops often comment on how ridiculous this registry is. Thats what we all get for not getting involved in the laws being passed in this country!!!!!!!.mrs kristin perk